Try to look at it objectively.

First off, you're an American.  You're not Japanese and the decision to hypenate your nationality is yours and yours alone.

There's nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage, but to do so at the expense of logic and fact isn't being truthful to yourself.

Can you answer one question?

Why is it so hard for you, and other members of Japanese descent, to recognize that the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge the fact that during WWII, Japan as a nation was responsible for some of the most unspeakable atrocities in modern history and there needs to be recognition of such and not outright denial?

[b]All your lawsuits are belong to us![/b]

Yeah so what?  How much did they get?  Their miserable life in the concentration camp was only worth 20000 dollars? If the person wasn't alive when the Feds agreed to paying them in late 1980s, they got nothing.  Mind you, they committed no crime.  They were singled out because they were Japanese Americans.

So how about the reparations for all those (civilians) that got injured or killed by the A-bombs.  How would you feel if I dropped A-bomb on your family and paid nothing for their pain and suffering?  



Oh please, be realistic.  I seriously think you are talking out of your ass because you failed in selling that product in Japan.  Japan has been in recession for over a decade now.  But yet, instead of stimulating the economy by spending their money in their homeland, they go overseas to attend school, buy foreign products, travel overseas, and spend money overseas.  And you complain its a closed market?  You obviously don't know crap about how Japanese people work and what kind of situation their country is in.
Do you even know why our economy remained strong during recent worldwide recession?  American cosumers were spending their money here in the US.  Whats wrong with Japanese people doing the same?




No, you are wrong buddy.  What initiative have you done to complete that sale in Japan?  Have you opened an office in Japan for sales, customer service, and warranty repair?  Who would want to deal with arrogant guy like who does nothing but expects so much.  


My question is, are there dealerships that can offer quick repair?  Are those dealerships located in strategic locations?  Are service parts readily available?  You answer to all those questions and then tell me my argument is insane.

You know why you couldn't sell your medical product in Japan?  Because you are a bigot with narrow vision.   Have you even bothered to learn about Japanese people?  Have you even made an effort to pursuade Japanese customers?
You are so wrong if you think you got easy sales just because your product is approved by FDA, UL, etc.  If you really want to make that sale, fly your ass over to Japan, dine them, go to Karaoke with them, invite them over to your facility for tour, and pamper the hell out of them.  They hate verbal agreements, they hate empty promises, and they prefer face to face deals.  Always provide agreements in writing, and provide quick response to their requests.

Don't get me wrong.  I was born and raised here in the US but I'm of Japanese descent.  I work with Japanese people everyday and I don't approve of their ideas and actions in many ways.  But I don't appreciate some loser who is venting his frustration because he failed to make a sale, turning Japan and Japanese people his enemy, and seeking others to join his crusade.   Problem lies with him and not with Japan or Japanese.  

CITADELGRAD87

Sir, I take it you are/were an officer?  Thank you for your service too.  I also hope that one day Japan's govt. apologizes, but to be honest, with all the crap going on in the world I doubt it is very high on anyone's priorities.

Maybe it is the Eastern concept of shame that is hindering it?  I remember years back, a Japanese American Judge's son shot and killed a few members of a California PD.  The rest subdued the punkass and literally beat him to death.  I know myself, and the Japanese community I was in contact with was shocked.  We were mortified that a Japanese American would commit such a heinous crime and we were embarrassed.  His father, the Judge, even came out publicly and apologized for his son's actions.  Nothing of racism or police brutality was ever even mentioned.

Maybe it is that feeling of shame or embarrassment which is preventing an apology?

FNC80

[First off, you're an American]  You are right.  First and foremost and twice sworn to defend my Country against all enemies foreign and domestic.

[You're not Japanese and the decision to hypenate your nationality is yours and yours alone.]  Yes, I consider myself Japanese too.  That's why my relatives were interned, even though they were also American, first, formost and absolutely loyal.  Japanese American...and I'm happy not to change it.

6 hours after the planes hit 9/11, most of my Team mates and I assembled at our HQ.  A bunch of angry, shocked Americans...chomping at the bit to go to NYC to help our fellow Americans.

As I recall looking around the room, I saw a Chinese American, a couple Mexican Americans, an Irish American, a Norwegian American, a few German Americans, another Japanese American, etc.

I'm glad they also hyphonate with their heritage also, cause I would miss getting stupid drunk at Oktoberfest, drinking green beer on St. Patties day, eating some good food on Cinco de Mayo, etc.  It would sure suck not to be able to enjoy Italian food, Chinese food, Japanese food, Korean food, German food, etc. if everyone left all their heritage behind them.

FNC80, you seem to be filled with anger and hatred.  I hope you can someday befriend a Japanese person, or one with Japanese heritage.  As the sticker I have seen cropping up a lot lately says, "United We Stand"

We have enough real enemies out there right now, bent on destroying us without trying to create more.

Ah, but you forget, it is much more satisfying to create more enemies...

Thank you for your post.

Hi Kagemusha,

No, I did not serve.  My father was a career, and then some, Air Force officer, 32 years worth, from the Cuban Missile Crisis in a B47 over the Arctic Circle to the invasion of Grenada while I was at the Citadel.

I took 4 years ROTC at one of the finest Military Academies on earth, but I never took the oath you did to protect our lifestyle.  I have a pretty good idea the hardships you agreed to, for a civilian, anyway.

I don't personally think an apology is in the cards, and I wouldn't ask for one, but, dammit, there's this charade going on that NOTHING happenned, or that it was all the US's fault, and I can't stand dishonesty, from people or governments.

I think it is very dangerous to forget or pretend the past didn't happen, and I don't mean the US, I mean there are generations of Japanese youth being misled about the causes and actions of the combatants in WWII.

 

The big man speaks, while he keeps blind eyes to all the embarassing things his country has done to others in the world.  

Do you even know that your fellow country men (US marines) gang raped a preteen girl in Japan?  She did nothing other than she happened to be there.   That is act of war and brutality you mention.  

Then the great man speaks of his books.  Books are fictious, we all know not to believe everything we read.  If you are hanging on to what you read, what you heard, you really need to get a life and open your horizon.  Unless you experienced it for yourself, keep you wise ass mouth shut please.    


So whats your point?  If we waited few months, Japan and US were at war anyway.  Regardless of the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan was all along America's enemy.  Don't deny that.  So what is the difference between enemy during a war and enemy without being in a war?  There is no difference.  


Yah, so that gives Americans the right to nuke innocent civilians.  That is so wrong in any military doctrine.  For someone who went to a military school, you are seem to lack the intelligence as a human being.  Maybe thats why you never made it past pre-college military education?   Military is military.  Civilians are civilians.  Don't mix them up.  

Just to add my two cents here, as a Chinese American. My parents still have gripes about Japan not apologizing for war crimes. And it's pretty common among a lot of Chinese people (the topic even came up once when I was flirting with this chinese girl, I had to steer the conversation away because it's just one of those things that tend to incite people, like religion and politics). Personally, I would like bygones be bygones. It does no one any good to remember this stuff too long, I mean just look at the blood feuds they got in the Balkans, still fighting over some battle that took place in the 11th century. As civiized people I think we should be beyond that. There will always be revisionists who would deny the past, but I think most people are pretty clear on things and can't be judged on the embarrassing conduct of a few.

I agree with Kagemusha's view on the Eastern concept of shame. My dad acts like an asshole sometimes because he refuses to behave like a normal person and apologize when he's wrong. As for weapon testing on human subjects and stuff, the US government is known to have tested the effects of radiation poisoning and psychoactive substances on unwilling human subjects. There will always be pockets of inhumanity in this world, there's nothing we can do about that.

Even if we forget about Japan's past though, the present still leaves a lot to be concerned about. For one, their government behave like assholes, when you look at the stink they raised over the sub crashing into their ship and the incident with some girl getting raped in Okinawa. These are all small incidents that could've been resolved quietly, but instead they had to blow it all out of proportion and resort to victimology. Second, I will have to agree that Japan is really hypocritical in its trade policies. Even in the 80s when they were buying up American landmarks, it was impossible to export stuff to Japan. How do you think they achieve such a huge trade surplus? They have this incredibly merchantile version of capitalism that's nothing like the entrepreneurial capitalism of the United States.

No, dipshit, it was not during wartime.  It was not even on Japan, it was in Okinawa, and those ANIMALS were aberrations, and were turned over to the local authorities for, GET THIS, trial and punishment, unlike the fuckers who raped Nanking.  We punish our criminals, not protect them and pretend nothing happenned, or that "everybody" did the same thing.  



Uh, OK, so all of printed history is to be ignored?  If we kept to what we have personally witnessed, criminal trial by  jury would be impossible except by eyewitnesses, GENIUS.

Re my wise ass mouth, I'll open it about ANYTHING I WANT, fuckstick, because the US Constitution says I can.  You feel like shutting it for me, go for it.    

My point, moron of morons, is that we WERE NOT AT WAR.  The Japanese tried to declare war just before the attack, but the cable got delayed.  If THEY thought they neede to declare war before they attacked Pearl, that's good enough for me to feel the same way, they should have declared war. International law provides for declaration of war prior to hostilities.



Whoa, that's DEEP.  It's not "pre" military anything, it's a military college, graduates are sworn as Second Leutenants if they so choose, I did not.

"Military is military," huh?  Wow. If I were permitted to refer to history, I'd list countless examples of how that's false, that TOTAL war means war against the enemy, not just those wearing uniforms, how LONDON was a legitimate target during the Blitz.

Strategic bombing, ie area bombing to destroy the enemy's will to continue fighting, was practiced by all sides during WWII, and was part of conventional military doctrine.

Remember those idiotic baloon bombs you morons sent over the pacific northwest?  What the hell were the military targets of those?  Official Japanese documents call them "terror weapons."

How about those plague infested rats the Japanese used on parts of Korea and China, was that some kind of special plague that only affected those in uniform?

Is it too much to ask that you make a cursory attempt to learn history before you lecture me?

THe Japanes fanatical devotion to the emporer meant that there were two options when we DEFEATED them (and make no mistake, we defeated them).  Either invade in a conventional sense or use the wonder weapon.

American casualties projected were so high that we excercised the option that killed LESS AMERICANS, which was our goal in DEFEATING the Japanese.

So that, the fact that we were WINNING, that we desired to kill as few AMERICANS while we DEFEATED the Japanese as possible,

THAT DOES GIVE US THE RIGHT TO "NUKE" CIVILIANS.

PERIOD.

.

[

Damn [b]CITADELGRAD87[/b]!  How many new assholes are you gonna rip in that poor boy?
[chainsawkill]

I haven't seen someone get bitch-slapped that bad since the Mike Tyson/Marvis Frazier fight. [BD]

...not that [b]Graffiti[/b] didn't deserve a good old-fashion switchwhippin-bootstompin-asskickin poundem-to-a-pulp-and feed-em-through-a-meat-grinder.[;)]

Doin' what I can with what I got.

Thanks for noticing.

Face it, Graffiti has a small dick. Period.

Uh, were the Marines under orders to do so like the cowardly bastards that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of INNOCENT CIVILIANS?

A simple "no" on your part shall suffice.

Sure there are gonna be a few bad soldiers in the bunch, but Japan sure seemed to have a whole shitload of them.  They treated killing like a sport.





Apparently so.

Too bad they don't have another atomic meet, those jackasses that signed the anti-gun petition could join them.  All 1,000,000+ of them.

They have incorporated American music, clothing, food, ENGLISH, and even the U.S. national pastime- BASEBALL into their culture.

All you are doing is just trying to rationalize your hatred against the population of an entire country, instead focusing on the perpetrators of 60 year old war crimes.

I read "Ghost Soldiers" about three months ago.  The Japs were real cordial, weren't they.



OUCH!!!! the truth hurts...

Duh, Okinawa is fully owned by Japan.


So why are you holding people of Japan
responsible for rape in Nanking and Pearl Harbor attack?  Why don't you go after the criminals who actually did the raping or attacking, and leave the rest alone.

History books can be rewritten.  History books can be edited to fit the time.  I never said we need to ignore
the past.  Past is there and always will be there.

 Ummm yah, so thats why lawyers
call eye witnesses from both sides to take the stand.  So the jury can accurately determine the verdict fairly.  Duh!
 

 Haha, last time I checked trade deficit between US and China was bigger than that of US and Japan.  You obviously don't read your newspaper carefully.  Japan was buying up buildings in the US while US economy was ailing.  That is a good thing idiot.  Japan invested their money here.  Japan helped stimulate the American economy by shopping here.  And you guys continuously gripe about trade deficit and how Japan market is closed up for foreign products.  Well, how the hell do you expect them to spend money for foreign products if banks there are going bankrupt, economy is stagnant for over 10 years, lots of people are unemployed, and companies are losing money.  Be realistic, buy American products and let companies there go bankrupt?   I've had a close chinese friend and he has mentioned his family's anger towards the Japanese.  I just think if people continue to harbor these bitter memories, no one will win and peace will never be attained.

CitadelGrad, Japan was defeated and they admit it, they became an ally.  So why continue bullying Japan and its people?  Japan is even nice enough to allow US military on their land.  You might believe that they should be honored for having such a strong military protecting their land.  But trust me, Japan does not want foreign military bases on their precious land.  Besides, Japan has capable JSDF to protect its people.  You can't expect fair trade or whatever, when this country has not even returned whats rightfully their's.      

Still bigger than yours

You really ought to quit, you're just making an ass out of yourself.

I never said that their investments in the United States aren't beneficial to us. Their stupid trade policies harm their own people more than anyone else because it limits competition and keeps prices high and quality low. Japan is a capitalist country in name, but it's a planned economy. Their whole economy is directed toward exports by government design. The government allow collusive relationships between the big banks and huge corporate conglomerates, it's essentially an economic oligarchy. It's nothing like the entrepreneurial capitalism of the United States. South Korea has changed a lot for the better since the Asian Economic Crisis, but Japan has not.